Would the King like the Emperor?

[Robdog]

Has anyone here kept Emperor tetras with Discus before? I'm thinking of getting a bunch of them for my 4ft instead of the usual cardinals and rummynose.

Further to this, there seems to be a few different fish that come in under the name of Emperor Tetra. One of them is Nematobrycon palmeri which seems to be the true Emperor and also Inpaichthys kerri which seems to be the Blue Emperor tetra and doesn't have the thread fins of the palmeri.

Would anyone advise one over the other?

[DiscusEden]

Hi Robdog,
Keeping in mind that I'm learning from you, I've been thinking along the same lines. From the reading I've done, they seem fine.

I was looking at the palmeri - I gather the males can get territorial with their own species when breeding, and they will breed frequently - I read on another site that someone started with 2 pair & now has a colony of about 40 odd, which get along fine, although the original pair are still breeding in the same tank. So they are described as peaceful, needing at least a foot on the bottom to breed.

I gather they don't school, but they hide at the bottom of the tank, coming out to display (but won't kill each other). They can reportedly be kept with a school of cardinals, discus, all the good stuff.

Of course, I could be wrong....

Happy to listen to words of greater wisdom. Like yours for instance.

DiscusEden

[*Chris*]

they will be fine emps usually keep to themselves
and although get a bit chunky a very much happy to fight and frolick amoungst themselves

[bushie]

generally refered to as kerri tetras and emperers they can be distinguished by the central line through the anal fin.
kerri don`t cary the colour all the way, where as emperor do and the males have extended upper middle and lower lines through the tail fins.

imo... a beautiful fish and worthy of its place instead of or with cardinals. 8-)

[Robdog]

Out of these two I think I'm going to go with the bottom one which is the true Emperor. They sound pretty easy to keep and breed readily aswell.
I'll keep you posted as soon as I can find some good ones.

Inpaichthys kerri
http://www.piranha-info.com/images/i_kerri_04.jpg

Nematobrycon palmeri
http://www.akwafoto.pl/fotoreport/zabrze2002/kasaczowate/nematobrycon_palmeri01.jpg